Set Fire to the Gods

TW: slavery, prejudice & slurs, mentioned child abuse & abandonment, mentioned torture, death of a child (off page), mentioned animal death
3.5

Madoc is at the bottom tier of society, without the power of control the earth that his people were granted by their god. That's how he landed with his adopted family, after his father kicked him out, and how he found himself fighting for money, pretending his brother's powers are his own. When a war starts, he never expects to become an actual gladiator for his god, hiding his lack of powers up close. But he may not be powerless after all- there's something in him that no one had seen.
Ash is from a bloodline that her god favors. Her mother was his favorite fighter, but when she's struck down by a cheater, Ash not only loses her mother but starts a war. Now she's bent on revenge- which means finding a way to kill a god.

I wasn't entirely sure what I was getting into with this book, and I'm still not really sure how I feel about it. A lot of it is very run of the mill, but there are some details I really love.

I like Madoc's powers, for one. The idea of magical intuition subtly powering him is not only a cool idea, but worked really well throughout the story and supporting his character arc. The way it's detailed when he begins actively using it is really cool, and I has so many questions about exactly what he can do.

I also enjoy the gods and the mythology aspect. As a whole it's not that unique, but I do love mythology in fantasy worlds, and pantheons. Plus, Ignitus wound up being really interesting. The gods in this story are not quite distant, cold, powerful figures far from humans, or basically human themselves- two extremes I see a lot. They're a great balance and I love that they're allowed to have layers and complicated flaws and intentions.

There's also a goo amount of tension in this book. I trusted literally no one throughout, which made my reading experience more exciting. You don't really know what's going on for a long time, and the mystery of that alongside the two main characters' plans & intentions works well to keep the story moving.

However, a lot of this story just didn't catch me. The world building felt very much regurgitated and under-explained. I still don't understand what in the world bioeisa is, and nothing about the world building beyond the gods themselves felt like anything more than reworking a fantasy world that was already made.

I felt the same way about the drama between Ash and Madoc, especially near the end. It didn't make sense and it didn't feel organic, it felt like it was following a format. There was enough original thought within this story that we could have avoided tropey plot points, but instead we got this.

And, last, I really don't think there should have been a romance. So much of this story is about found family- why do we need a romance to push the plot or inspire anything? Why can't familial love do that? Or platonic love? The romance yet again felt like it was something that just had to be added in to fit a format than it did something that made sense between the characters or with the plot.

I did have fun with this book, and I was interested to figure out what was at play in the world and between the gods, but it could have been a much shorter book without a lot of unnecessary info, or a much longer book actually explaining and detailing the interesting portions and I would have liked it a lot better.